Jim Stillman
Nevar
Tyler Mills:"In Defense of Political Independence"
August 27th 2008 19:18
I have been in touch with Tyler Mills, a thoughtful and excellent writer on another site. Tyler, a friend of Randy Inman, a contributor to this blog as well as his own, identifies himself as leaning to the Left (although he doesn’t “lean” as far as I am apt to do. Tyler has tried to register with Orble and has suggested that he post on this blog; I have told him that this blog will welcome people of all political viewpoints, provided that they will accept criticism in good spirits! I understand that Orble has the registration, my invitation to join this blog and so forth. Tyler will, I am certain, be a great asset to these pages.
In the meantime, Tyler is chomping at the bit, as it were. What follows is his initial post’
"In Defense of Political Independence"
As an Iowan the speech that most caught my attention was one that was not covered by the three major networks to my knowledge. It was the speech delivered by my former Congressman Republican Jim Leach. Leach’s speech highlighted what true political independence is as the thirty three Congressman highlighted the need to break the partisan gridlock in Washington. Leach has expressed discontent with the current foreign policy of his party. Jim Leach is not a pacifist nor a non-interventionist like the foolhardy and idealistic followers that worship Barack Obama or Ron Paul. Jim Leach was a supporter of the Gulf War, but voted against this current policy in Iraq. Having been a lifelong Republican who worked in the Nixon Administration he spoke of the reasons as to why he was endorsing Barack Obama for President. Although I disagree with some of the principles layed out by Leach, particularly on climate change being one of our biggest threats his speech was excellent in my view.
Now my conservative friends will say looking at Jim Leach’s voting and legislative records that he is a RINO (Republican in Name Only.) and they are correct in many ways. However, the point of being an elected representative is not to carry water for a certain party or ideological perspective. You are elected to represent the majority view of the people in your district. Just because someone may be more conservative on an issue like tort reform does not mean that they don’t want to see more poor people have healthcare for the truly sick. Most people I speak to are not monolithic in their political beliefs. Sadly though, we have primaries that are being controlled by fringe organizations such as MoveOn.org and the Club for Growth which seem to demand that those in Washington and around the country toe the party line or suffer the consequences-sounds like fascism to me folks and I hate to use that word.
We need more folks in Congress who buck their party like a Jim Leach. Voting for Jim Leach in 2006 is the proudest vote I have ever cast. I admire groups like the Blue Dog Democrats and the Republican Main Street Partnership who say enough with this foolishness. One thing I liked about President Ronald Reagan was that he rarely spoke ill of a fellow Republican, even if that Republican disagreed with him on some very key matters. Listening to Leach’s speech it reminded me of the John McCain of 2000 and how we could have actually had someone in the White House with a principled, yet mainstream view. I think that John McCain is still in there, yet the extremists in his party have made him put it away. So I would like America to have an honest political discussion where we didn’t throw around hyperbole about people like Obama being a communist and McCain being a war monger, neither are the case. I fully support your right to say it, but you should also respect my right to criticize your statement.
I look forward to many more posts by Tyler.
In the meantime, Tyler is chomping at the bit, as it were. What follows is his initial post’
"In Defense of Political Independence"
As an Iowan the speech that most caught my attention was one that was not covered by the three major networks to my knowledge. It was the speech delivered by my former Congressman Republican Jim Leach. Leach’s speech highlighted what true political independence is as the thirty three Congressman highlighted the need to break the partisan gridlock in Washington. Leach has expressed discontent with the current foreign policy of his party. Jim Leach is not a pacifist nor a non-interventionist like the foolhardy and idealistic followers that worship Barack Obama or Ron Paul. Jim Leach was a supporter of the Gulf War, but voted against this current policy in Iraq. Having been a lifelong Republican who worked in the Nixon Administration he spoke of the reasons as to why he was endorsing Barack Obama for President. Although I disagree with some of the principles layed out by Leach, particularly on climate change being one of our biggest threats his speech was excellent in my view.
Now my conservative friends will say looking at Jim Leach’s voting and legislative records that he is a RINO (Republican in Name Only.) and they are correct in many ways. However, the point of being an elected representative is not to carry water for a certain party or ideological perspective. You are elected to represent the majority view of the people in your district. Just because someone may be more conservative on an issue like tort reform does not mean that they don’t want to see more poor people have healthcare for the truly sick. Most people I speak to are not monolithic in their political beliefs. Sadly though, we have primaries that are being controlled by fringe organizations such as MoveOn.org and the Club for Growth which seem to demand that those in Washington and around the country toe the party line or suffer the consequences-sounds like fascism to me folks and I hate to use that word.
We need more folks in Congress who buck their party like a Jim Leach. Voting for Jim Leach in 2006 is the proudest vote I have ever cast. I admire groups like the Blue Dog Democrats and the Republican Main Street Partnership who say enough with this foolishness. One thing I liked about President Ronald Reagan was that he rarely spoke ill of a fellow Republican, even if that Republican disagreed with him on some very key matters. Listening to Leach’s speech it reminded me of the John McCain of 2000 and how we could have actually had someone in the White House with a principled, yet mainstream view. I think that John McCain is still in there, yet the extremists in his party have made him put it away. So I would like America to have an honest political discussion where we didn’t throw around hyperbole about people like Obama being a communist and McCain being a war monger, neither are the case. I fully support your right to say it, but you should also respect my right to criticize your statement.
I look forward to many more posts by Tyler.
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Comment by Randy Inman
Waxing Political
Football Dogz
NCstuff
Comment by RubySoho
Music Zone
Thought Zone
I hear ya.
Comment by Randy Inman
Waxing Political
Football Dogz
NCstuff
Comment by Jeff Musall
As for the use of terminology, sometimes it can be over the top, but it can also be demonstrative of certain realities. And of course, that is going to be subjective. I would find alot of fault with calling Obama a Communist, but I can see alot of reason in calling McCain, if not a full-blown warmonger, at least a Cold-warmonger, as demostrated by his bluster concering Russia.